RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “We, original indigenous peoples, want to survive from nature. We do not accept this integration with the white man.”
The statement is from Raoni Metuktire, one of the most heard voices in the world on the indigenous issue.
He was the target of President Jair Bolsonaro’s speech to the United Nations 17 days ago. The retribution expected by environmentalists, which did not occur, would be his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.
But the Kayapo leader never ceased to display a “war-like” stance for his ideals. In an interview with the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, he said that he will continue “defending the rights of indigenous peoples,” as he described in a video published last week.
He said that Bolsonaro is “wrong and isolated” and that forests and indigenous peoples are at greater risk than ever before.
He maintained a soothing tone, though not hiding the bravery of the warrior he is. On Skype, in his native language and translated by a grandson, Raoni lifted his finger and in a serious tone said he will never accept the government’s plans to integrate indigenous peoples into the non-indigenous way of life.
“At the time of the Villas-Boas (brothers), I saw many relatives integrated, mixed, married to white people, with children. But I don’t want that. We need to have our headdress, our necklace. Other relatives from various regions have already given themselves up to the white man, they already want to eat as whites, to survive as whites. We who depend on the forest don’t want that,” he said.
It is believed that Raoni is about 90 years old. He learned to speak Portuguese after contacting the Villas-Boas brothers in 1954.
He traveled with them and became a translator not only of the voice of the indigenous people but also of their culture and the environment in which they lived.
It would not be long before he would become a kind of negotiator of the indigenous issue. He became famous in the country in 1984, when he went to Brasília painted red for war, with a wooden club, and literally tugged at the ear of the then Minister of the Interior, Mario Andreazza, demanding a definitive demarcation of the Xingu Park, which was created by Villas-Boas in 1961.
“I accept to be your friend. But you have to listen to the Indian.”
Internationally known after 1989, when he toured the world with singer Sting to draw attention to the risks to the Amazon, Raoni has already been greeted by presidents and two popes.
This year he met with Emmanuel Macron, President of France, and Pope Francis in preparation for the Amazon Synod. However, he has not been received by President Bolsonaro since the beginning of the year.
“I have always had contact with the presidents of Brazil, and they have never spoken ill of me, never criticized my struggle. Suddenly, this Bolsonaro spoke ill of my work, speaking ill of me. Since the presidential campaign, he’s been dividing us – be it white, Indian or black. With a plan to destroy the rights of each people.”
He also commented on the presence of the indigenous Ysani Kalapalo alongside Bolsonaro at the UN and the President’s speech, who decreed the “end of Mr. Raoni’s monopoly”.
Bold, he said he never put himself in that role. “I never said that I owned all the Indians in Brazil. My work and my focus to date are only to discuss preserving the forest, preserving the river, the animals,” he said.
As for Ysani, he said that he had never heard of her. “Not even the people of the Alto Xingu told me. She thinks incorrectly. Maybe she was born in the city, grew up in the city and has a different mentality”.
Source: O Estado de S. Paulo.